April 25, 2011

Pierre Jancou's Vivant in the 10th: Cool, cool, cool and good produce and good cooking and good wines to boot.

6.5 Vivant (not Le or La or Les as himself reminded me), 43 rue des Petites Ecuries, 10th, 01.42.46.43.55, Metro = Bonne Nouvelle, closed Saturday and Sunday has gotten a lot of (well-deserved press). I finally got there today accompanied by two old dear friends and two moderately new dear ones, absent Colette who is awaiting the Surgeon's knife in the USofA.

The carte is simple: lots of bio-natural-organic-etc wines (look, this is the guy who did it at La Cremerie and Les Racines, why not keep the winning formula?), today - 4 starters (Parma ham, burrata, foie gras mi-cuit and greens) and 4 mains (pork, duck, gnocchi with ragout and a fish from St Jean de Luz), and 3 desserts/cheeses (parmesan, frittata, granache).

We all went with the burrata with capers and sun-dried but gonflated tomatoes - superb.

Then three of us had the duck off the bone with root veggies (about the best I've had since, ahhhh, Les Racines) and two had the gnocchi with ragout (as a sort of dusting).

Then we finished with a portion of the frittata/friturra/whatever and one of chocolate; also very good.

Our bill, with two bottles of Mazel (Tov implied) and two of water and 5 Afribon coffees from the Laboratorio di Torrefazione Giamaica Caffe in Verona (it was about the best coffee I've ever had), was something like 281 E (picked up by our distinguished friend).